CraveOnline: Correct me if I’m wrong, is this your first horror movie?
Donald Glover: Yes. There’s some movies I have done that ended up being scary, but no, this is the first horror movie I’ve ever done.
Was that part of the appeal? “Oh! I get to do this part of my career now!”
[Laughs.] Right.
“I do not like having people tell me what I’m doing. I hate that.”
“I get to be the horror actor!”
I do not like having people tell me what I’m doing. I hate that. I hate that in any field, where people are like, “I know what he’s doing, and this is what he’s going to do next.” In any field, in music or stuff, “He’s going to have his blank album that’s going to be his everything.” I don’t think it’s cool. I think, take things as they are. We do have a lot of information now, so it’s easy to link things to everything. That’s human evolution, like everything. So I like being able to do something where are just kind of like, “Okay, I don’t know. I don’t know!” It makes people have to take it for what it is.
Do you ever do anything specifically because people might think it’s weird? Does it ever go in the other direction, where you just want to defy expectation?
No, I always just do what feels right. I never really try and overthink it too much. I really was, I like the script. I mean, Olivia Wilde’s starring in it, and Mark Duplass, and it’s a Blumhouse film. I like how they’re approaching how media is made.
They got a fun niche here, and this seems like the kind of smallish horror film that would be shot on one location for the most part, kind of a tight knit crew. Was it like that or was it like any other movie?
No, it was done very differently from lots of movies I’ve done. We all were hanging out together in the same green room, we were talking it out, hashing it out. It was like, almost like back in the day when you’re making YouTube films and, “Somebody bring the raw chicken!” It felt very homegrown, which was very cool. It’s nice to have someone like Blumhouse and these people behind you, but it still felt very like a passion project.
When you do something for a bigger company do you no longer get that sense? Was Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day super corporate? Everything’s there in business suits?
[Laughs.] No, it’s just a different feel. It’s bigger. Once you’re big there’s certain things you’re not going to be able to see anymore. Like the king just doesn’t know what it’s like to live there. He just doesn’t know. It’s not like he goes “fuck those guys,” he just doesn’t know what that is any more. [He] was never really there. I feel like with big movies, it’s like we’re going after different things. Totally different things.
With Blumhouse, that model is put a bunch into this little thing. I think Mark [Duplass] described it as a lottery ticket, like a lottery ticket kind of system. Make little things that you care a lot about, and hopefully they kind of blow up. It’s not like that when you’re spending $30 million. You can’t [say] “Ah well, I hope this does well.” No, we make this do well. We have to because the risk is bigger. They’re just different. I don’t think they’re necessarily good or bad.
